Thursday, October 4, 2012

I’ve
told you about my harrowing experience regarding the theft of my iPhone
in April, 2010. To recap: I was riding Light Rail, a Young Fool decided
he would rather be in possession of an iPhone instead of me.
He made off with mine, and I ended up in the hospital with a dislocated
shoulder. But that was only half of the story. To tell the rest of the
story, I’ve invited my long lost friend, the iPhone, to fill you in.iPhone:

I’m
an iPhone. You’ve probably seen many of me around. I’m pretty popular.
People have been known to line up for days to get me. I pretty much
defined a whole new class of portable computing and entertainment
devices. I’m old and retired now, but shortly before I decided to take
that long-deserved rest, I had quite an adventure.

But
let’s step back about a year and a half earlier. My siblings and I were
part of what was known as the second generation. My older brothers and
sisters from the previous year were getting a little long in the tooth,
and there was that whole newer, faster telephone network to take
advantage of. 3G. Third generation network on a second generation
iPhone. I’m getting confused. Am I my own grandfather?

Roger: Hmm,
well it appears that my friend iPhone is not really up to the task of
telling his story, so I’ll have to step in here. When the original
iPhone came out, just like many, I wanted one. Unfortunately, I was on a
contract with my old-fashioned flip cell phone, and couldn’t take
advantage of the initial iPhone offering. But a year later, I was ready,
and I jumped at the chance to buy the next generation. Unfortunately,
so did everybody else, and it became a difficult task to find a stock of
iPhones unless you were willing to get up early, stand in line for
hours and risk being told “Sorry, sold out!” just as you reached the
head of the line.I
carefully watched the Apple Store web site and finally decided that a
Sunday morning visit to the Arden Fair Apple Store was going to be my
best bet at acquiring the treasured device. When I arrived the line was
only about twenty deep, so it looked like luck was on my side. After
about an hour wait for the store to open, and watching the line behind
me grow, my prospects began to brighten. An Apple Store employee handed
each of us early arrivals a ticket, essentially guaranteeing that we
would get one of the elusive gadgets.As
I walked out of the store with my new phone activated, I couldn’t wait
to try out all the features that I had been reading about. We hopped in
the car, and took a drive up to Williams, to breakfast at Granzella’s
Restaurant. The iPhone Maps application showed me exactly where we were,
and for sake of adventure, we took the less-traveled route back home,
just to see if it could keep up with us. It did not fail us.Upon
returning home, I began loading some of my vast music library onto it,
and it soon became my constant companion, especially on my hour long
commute to work via bus and train. Music, web, e-mail, books, video,
games and other apps. It could do it all; the perfect distraction to
whatever else was going on. Ah, my downfall. But you heard that,
already. What you didn’t hear about was the iPhone’s continuing
adventure, once it left my possession.I’ll
let iPhone tell you about it (dial tone). Hmm, it appears he’s worn out
and apparently has gone to sleep. I don’t think he’ll mind if I
continued.I
imagine he probably saw me through his camera lens as I fell, and he
watched as the doors of the train closed and pulled away. He was on his
way to parts unknown at a rapid pace.His
new master treated him roughly, punching at the screen, trying to get
in some free long-distance calls. It was obvious he didn’t know his way
around, and iPhone wasn’t talking.But wait, now he was back on the Light Rail. Returning to the scene of the crime? How is that a good idea?And
now the Young Fool was back to his old tricks, harassing other
passengers and generally making more trouble. iPhone had had enough, and
decided to try psychic means of communication. Apparently, reaching me
as I was suffering in the ER, he gave me the idea to have the phone
service shut off. I asked my wife to call AT&T, she explained the
loss, and they immediately cut off the phone service. My iPhone was
gone, but at least I wouldn’t be accruing additional insult on top of
injury.iPhone’s
psychic abilities only increased more once the distraction of listening
for incoming calls went away, and he convinced Young Fool to get into a
face-off with Big Burly, another passenger on the train. The two argued
and exited the train, Big Burly pulled a gun on Young Fool, and shot
him in the leg. Big Burly ran off into the neighborhood, and Young Fool
waited for law enforcement to arrive. He was now the victim. Taking out
iPhone, he stripped down his pants, and took two photos of his injuries
on the back of his thigh.When
the police arrived, they noticed that some things didn’t quite add up.
Young Fool was injured, but all he could talk about was “Where’s my
iPhone. Where’s my iPhone?” The officer on duty recalled an earlier
report about a Light Rail iPhone theft, and began putting two and two
together, and discovered that the iPhone in Young Fool’s possession was
not his own. Young Fool was arrested, and the iPhone was confiscated.By
this time, my wife and I were on our way home, when her cell phone
rang. I answered it, and it was the Sacramento County Sheriff who
recovered the phone. “I think we have your iPhone,” he told me. I was in
shock. How was this even possible? He arranged to meet us at our home
later that afternoon.I
called our son at home, to tell him the good news about the recovered
phone. He had just seen a news report about a light rail incident in
which a passenger had been shot by another. The report focused on the
fact that the poor fellow was another victim of undeserved violence.Meanwhile,
iPhone was still trying to see justice served. He remembered the women
from the train earlier in the day, and put it in her mind to contact the
TV station and let them know there was more to the story than met the
eye. Soon after iPhone reunited with me, a TV crew was at my house to
hear the story of a theft, injury and recovery, and I, once a victim,
was now the victor.

As
I lay on the hospital bed in my first-ever visit to the Emergency Room,
suffering from the most intense pain I have ever felt in my life, my
distracted mind tried to piece together the events of the past two
hours.The
late-April day started out just like any other, a pre-dawn bus ride to
the Light Rail station, a short wait for the train, a seemingly innocent
inquiry from another waiting passenger about my iPhone. A trip I’d
taken literally thousands of times, with nothing worse than a few
annoying loud talkers, minor delays, sometimes pleasant conversation,
but often with me buried in a book, listening to music, generally
ignoring the hubbub around me until I arrived safely at work.Events
that day began to take a turn when the young man who had earlier
inquired about my iPhone began walking up and down the aisle of the
Light Rail car, his long black trench coat flapping behind him,
generally being annoying, and making loud references to his desire to
make trouble. My response: push the earphones in deeper to block the
distracting noise, then focus more intently on the web page I was
perusing.It
was obvious that this was affecting the other passengers as well. The
train operator made an announcement to the ride disruptor to cease or
exit the train. Fortunately, he chose to exit at the next station, much
to the relief of all. But, suddenly, he turned back to me, reached out
his arm, and grabbed my iPhone. “I’ll take that,” were his words as he
turned and began to exit. I sat in stunned silence for what seemed like
an eternity, but in reality, could only have been one or two seconds. I
decided to take action. I jumped out of my seat, grabbed for the phone,
brushing the thief's arm, but failed to retrieve the stolen goods.He
succeeded in exiting the train, and I succeeded in falling to the
floor, hard. After another seeming eternity, I picked myself up, fully
embarrassed, and plopped back down into my seat, a partial set of
destroyed earphones the only remaining evidence of being the former
owner of an iPhone.The
train operator checked on my condition, and informed me that RT
security had been contacted. Given the chance to stay there or move on, I
elected to meet them at my destination.My
thoughts turned to my inability to communicate as I’d been accustomed.
How was I to inform my wife of the incident? How was I going to replace
my phone? Many thoughts ran through my head, all the while blocking out
the fact that my left arm was hanging uselessly at my side.The
woman sitting across from me indicated that she was able to get a good
description of the perpetrator. I thanked her, and in turn, explained to
her that I thought my arm was broken, as I could not lift it on its
own. Other passengers also inquired about my well-being, and I painfully
endured the remainder of the ride to work.Upon
arriving at my destination, I was met by a Sacramento County Sheriff's
Deputy. He asked if I needed an ambulance, but I declined the offer,
indicating I would contact my wife for assistance. He took my statement,
as well as the statement of the witness, and in a few minutes I was
safely into the building and at my desk.My
first call was to my wife, alarmed and annoyed to be hearing from me at
6:30 AM, as she was preparing herself to go to work. “My iPhone was
stolen on the train, and I think I’ve broken my arm. I need you to pick
me up and go to the hospital.” After the shock of my statement wore off,
she began the preparations to meet me downtown. In the meantime, more
time for me to reflect and suffer.Luckily,
only a few minutes later, a co-worker arrived. I explained the incident
to him, and he immediately offered to drive me to the hospital himself.
A quick call to my wife to advise her of the change of plans and we
were on our way.My
co-worker dropped me off at the ER desk, ensured that I was going to
receive the proper care, and returned downtown. I was rushed into a room
and painkillers were administered but they had no effect. The doctor
reviewed the X-rays and discovered that I had dislocated my shoulder,
torn some tendons and experienced a small fracture as well.By
this time, my wife had arrived and was admitted to the room to be by my
side. We were advised of the procedure that was necessary to repair my
injury. I would be given anaesthesia, the same one administered to
Michael Jackson that ultimately led to his death, a not quite comforting
thought. However, when used properly, it had no side effects and was
otherwise very effective. Then the doctor, a small, slight woman, would
pull my arm back into place while I was out.My
wife was asked to leave, I was knocked out, but came out of it almost
immediately. I saw my wife, still in the room, and told her she was
supposed to leave. She informed me that the procedure had already been
completed, and the evidence was the immobilizing sling on my arm. I
remembered nothing but the pain was gone.I
lay there, now on the road to recovery, still without my beloved
iPhone, but thankful that my injuries were fixable. I was facing a few
days off from work and a few weeks of physical therapy, but little did I
know that my iPhone was having an adventure of its own.But that’s another story.

About Me

There are plenty of lengthier bios to be found on my web site. However, here's the short version.

Online, I'm primarily known for my Todd Rundgren Connection website, the first (established in 1994) website to feature Todd Rundgren, even ahead of the artist's itself. Through these efforts, I also helped establish ToddFest/West, an annual gathering of Todd Rundgren fans held each year in Northern California.

With the success and early entry of the TR Connection, I was also instrumental in developing the first web sites for Larry Tagg, John Ferenzik and Lucid Dreamers as well as independent musician Gilly Nils.

I introduced web sites for various organizations in the Lutheran Community in Sacramento, California beginning in 1995. I developed early sites for Sierra Pacific Synod events and the local cable TV program "Lutherans ALIVE!" for which I was also an Executive Producer.

I also used the web to gather information for the Rio Linda High School Class of 1971 30 year reunion.

I developed and maintain a number of internal web applications for my employer, the California Department of Water Resources.

I play guitar and am the Praise Band Director for Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Citrus Heights, CA. I was formerly leader of the praise band How Majestic at Calvary Lutheran in Rio Linda, CA.

I've written two Rock Operas, a play, two monologues and 1 1/2 novels. The monologues were performed at the Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre in Sacramento, CA, and I've acted in a production at the Thistle Dew in the summer of 2011.

I've been married to my wife Cece since 1976, have two adult sons and a toddler granddaughter. I've recently started researching my wife's paternal family, and have discovered a lot of previously unknown information.